14 months of curiosity

What Joy is doing 

• Joy is busy as usual exploring the world around her. She is more interested in cruising around furniture, holding onto hands to walk and climbing up on the ottoman. She can get up and down off the couch all on her own. 

• Total tooth count: 6 
• Loved going swimming a couple days ago at the public pool (no pictures since you are "not allowed" to take pictures, I might try and sneak some next time). It was very funny to watch her try and crawl in the water in the kiddie pool. We need to work on blowing bubbles. 
• Can use a straw!
• Blows on hot food

What Joy is saying 

• daddy
• ma ma 
• daaddy (Rudy)..sounds almost like daddy so only really recognizable in context) yes 
• down (not consistently) 
• up (not consistently) 
• baby
• da da (dog) 
• Animal noises: lion, elephant, monkey dog

 Joy and mommy have similar bellies and outie belly buttons now :-)

Eats

• Nursing: Joy is weaned! Hurray. We were going to wait until after our holiday to Sri Lanka but I got really sick and couldn't nurse her before bed one night and so we just stopped. She barely noticed so I guess she was ready.
• Solid food: Joy eats as much as me (well almost!) 
• Loves: drinking her keifer/green smoothies from a straw, oatmeal/almond pancakes, FRUIT
• Verdict is still out on: black beans, chick pea, chicken, cow milk (&sweet potatoes still give her diaper rash)
• Introducing this week: Joy spits up whenever she drinks cow milk (sometimes with yogurt but not as much), so we are trying to figure out if she has an intolerance of some kind.

Sleeps:

•  Night time: Sri Lanka did something amazing to her sleeping. She now sleeps from 7pm-8am (I don't miss her getting up at 6am!)
• Naps: Joy is transitioning from two naps to one in the afternoon (at 12:30). If she wakes up before 8 she needs a 45 min morning nap and then a 2 hour afternoon nap. 
• I was just telling Brad how Joy's sleeping patterns are so great and predictable these days....one thing I am not looking forward to with little brother in August! 

A rare morning snuggle

Weighs:About 20 lbs (according to the scale at the pool :-)

Likes:

*Going to the library to get new books (although we always get "shushed" for being too loud)

 

We found an Arabic counting book at our local library....isn't Hong Kong great?

 *Loves animals in books and the real thing.  Over the past two months she has seen real: pandas (Ocean Park),  elephants (Sri Lanka), cows (Sri Lanka) and 10 types of monkeys (HK Zoological Garden). Brad and I joke around that we are taking her to see all the animals in the zoo one animal at a time. It will be fun to take her to the Oregon Zoo when we are back in a few summers.

* Poking everyone in the eyes and nose.

* Playing with other kids

* Eating home grown cucumbers with dad on the roof 

* To scream when she wants something or is not getting her way (something that we don't like very much, but are having a hard time figuring out how to stop it!)

Dislikes: Joy dislikes when she can't get her way (we have a determined child on our hands!)

Favorite event: Joy loved the elephants and the ocean she saw in Sri Lanka. We have a true naturalist on our hands!